At the moment I am here at Chelsea and I want to keep winning but you never know what can happen in football

Rafa Benitez

And the 52-year-old did not rule out one day returning to Anfield – where he won the Champions League in 2005 – to manage the North-West giants again.

“At the moment I am here at Chelsea and I want to keep winning but you never know what can happen in football,” he said.

“I have a good relationship with the Liverpool fans and the city but I am a good professional and that means I will give 100 per cent for this club.”

The interim Blues boss’s wife and two daughters still live in Liverpool but canny Benitez was not prepared to say whether they were Reds or Chelsea supporters.

“They are Rafa fans...” was all the Spaniard would say prior to the trip to face Everton at Goodison tomorrow.

But in the past Benitez has been more candid about Claudia and Agata.

“They are both big Liverpool fans, especially the little one,” he said in 2008.

“She is always coming home from school with stories about Evertonians in her class.”

Yesterday, Benitez – who is looking for a fourth league win in a row – said: “It is always something special when you go to Liverpool.

“My connection with the city is very strong. When you have children, it depends on the ages.

“I have children of 10 and 13, nearly 14. They’ve been there for eight years so it is difficult to move the family. So you have to do something for them.”

Benitez said it means moving around on his own for work, and fitting in trips home for Christmas dinner.

Benitez, who was Liverpool manager from 2004 to 2010, revealed he has been eating at the Chelsea training ground in Cobham, Surrey, but did manage to travel to Liverpool on Christmas Day, where his wife Montse cooked him a Spanish omelette.

“As a professional, my family understand I have to move around,” he said.

“I was in Tenerife, I was living in Valencia, obviously Madrid. Liverpool was fantastic. Milan was fine for five or six months. The children are still at school, so they have to stay there. But I am really pleased at Cobham.

“My two girls enjoy football and play in the playground. They do not play in a team – they are too small. One likes horses and the other does karate and other things.”